The Republican file photoLewis HoffSPRINGFIELD - A Holyoke financier pleaded guilty Friday to hatching a country club-driven Ponzi scheme in the area.
Lewis H. Hoff pleaded guilty to 13 fraud counts in U.S. District Court. It was his third federal conviction after he served time for previous schemes in Florida and Western Massachusetts.
He was accused of luring investments from golf buddies and other acquaintances to pay off other investors in a pyramid scheme, Bernie Madoff-style.
Hoff agreed to serve 63 months in prison in a plea deal that drops one count in the original indictment, according to Assistant U.S. Attorney Karen L. Goodwin.
Hoff, 48, was free on $50,000 unsecured bond and scheduled for trial Jan. 11. He is accused of stealing $3 million from area investors by posing as a Merrill Lynch broker and promising high returns. Instead of investing his clients’ money, Hoff used it to lure new clients, according to a 14-count federal indictment filed in April.
Several of the alleged victims were friends, neighbors or family members of Hoff, and also members of the Hickory Ridge Country Club in Amherst, investigators said. Under his bail agreement, Hoff was barred from contacting victims of his investment business.
In a motion filed Dec. 2, Goodwin said the government recently learned that Hoff had made payments to two victims Nov. 25.
A third was approached a month ago by Hoff and asked for a $30,000 loan for his sister, according to Goodwin. The same victim recently received checks for $400,000 from Hoff to be cashed once the case was resolved, the prosecutor said.
Hoff was convicted in the late 1990s and in 2001 for similar schemes.
He was poised to plead guilty to this indictment but backed out in the 11th hour earlier this year, saying the charges were “unfair.”